Nandor Tanczos – The Open Source Revolution

Nandor Tanczos – The
Open Source revolution

At one level, the
open-source revolution has been won. When you use a Nokia
phone, trade on eBay or do a Google search you're using
open-source technology. Open-source pioneers such as Richard
Stallman, founder of the free software movement, fiercely
believed in the need to liberate cyberspace from the grip of
proprietary vendors such as Unix and Microsoft.

They
enabled Swedish student Linus Torvalds to prove - with the
invention of the Linux operating system - their basic point,
that computer codes and standards that are freely used,
modified and re-distributed create more robust and flexible
solutions than those emanating from proprietary
vendors.

To me, open source has been a perfect
illustration of the Green Party belief that an open,
co-operative decision path makes the most ethical, economic
and environmental sense.

But can open source also render
New Zealand firms more profitable? Yes, provided we're
looking at this solely through the crude cost slashing lens.
True, there are short-term savings from escaping certain
forms of licensing fees and mandatory upgrades. However,
overseas experience indicates that the economic benefits
mainly accrue from the paradigm shift involved - open
source fosters a better sense of the tasks facing the firm,
while offering more flexible and enduring solutions.

Those savings are substantial. Earlier this year,
international consulting firm Optaros reported that US
companies with US$1 billion-plus revenue saved US$3.4
million on average during 2004 by using open source,
medium-sized firms saved US$1.5 million, while small
companies making less than US$50 million saved about
US$500,000 on average.

Less cosmically, the question is:
Why should a business invest in a multi-million dollar
mainframe and pay for the support agreements around several
proprietary systems? Employing one team to support a Linux
operating system with six or eight Intel boxes running off
it could cost about $80,000 each - and still provide a
business with as much if not more processing power.

True,
there is no free lunch. Chances are, a business may still
have a support agreement for Red Hat or SUSE or for whatever
brand of Linux it wishes to deploy. But the cost savings
mainly lie in having one support team looking after Linux
rather than paying for multiple operating systems, as well
as in having applications that are completely portable and
upgradeable.

This revolution is being won. By reliable
estimates 15 to 20 per cent of the computing done in New
Zealand enterprises utilises some form of open source, and
much is being driven in-house, by work groups rather than by
top management.

So what are the residual hurdles? There is
the perception of legal risks. Firms do need to be aware of
what can and can't be done under the end-user license
agreements for the open-source software. Even the general
public license created by Stallman - which grants any user
the right to copy, modify and redistribute programmes and
source code from developers that have chosen to license
their work under it - requires governance of the chopped up
and redistributed bits of code. With experience though,
those legal concerns are receding.

Inertia remains the
proprietary vendor's best friend. Firms feel secure about
being locked into a support deal with a proprietary vendor,
and they take all the downsides that go with that captivity
as the price to pay.

But there are support systems out
there - from IBM to the Slashdot community - and because a
firm is deploying open codes and standards, the fix-it
solution is usually easier and cheaper to
achieve.There's another reason to champion open source.
Government is about devising enduring solutions and making
them openly accessible through time. Access by the public to
records of governance _ and by Government to its own
administrative history _ should not be at the whim of a
proprietary vendor with the market power to render the tools
of access extinct by boardroom decree.

Here, the
portability and flexibility of Linux _ and the reliability
of offerings such as Apache, Mozilla,, MySQL, SUSE and Red
Hat _ provides a viable alternative. The fact the paper
trail with open source is so much more transparent
renders the Government legacy more sustainable.

From
Australia to Germany to Israel to China, central and local
governments are actively promoting the switch to open-source
technology and are effectively closing the door on the
Microsoft business model. In Asia, there is a reluctance to
be tied to US vendor monopolies.

Can Government do more
to foster private-sector confidence in open-source
processes? Already, Inland Revenue, some district health
boards and education outlets are moving to embrace this
technology, which should boost confidence in it. An attitude
shift is required. Freedom can be just another word for
something left to choose, and open source delivers its
benefits by maximising those choices. Sometimes this happens
through allied social movements such as Creative Commons. At
other times it is through giving firms the opportunity to
actively configure their own solutions to the needs that
they define.

*********

Scoop note
- this opinion piece from Green MP Nandor Tanczos originally
ran in the NZ Herald. Nandor Tanczos is the Green Party's
spokesman for technology and telecommunications and is an
advocate of open-source software.

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